It's less a case of medication error than it is of medication abuse, and the offending parties constitute a broad range of medical actors and participants.
That is highly obvious from the results of a recent crackdown on painkiller abuse by Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents working in Florida.
What the DEA noticed was more than somewhat irregular, namely this: Two CVS pharmacies in Sanford, a town of about 30,000 in central Florida, ordered more than three million oxycodone pills -- a highly regulated Schedule II narcotic -- last year. That contrasted mightily to what a typical pharmacy orders, which is about 69,000 pills.
In other words, each pharmacy was ordering at a rate more than 20 times higher than the national average.
"We're not talking about a gray area here," said one DEA special agent, noting what he called an amount "way beyond what would be for legitimate use."
The pills were distributed by a major health company, Cardinal Health, which supplies medications to about 2,500 pharmacies throughout Florida and other southern states.
The DEA suspended the license of CVS in Florida, the first time a chain pharmacy has ever suffered such a fate in the state. It also suspended Cardinal Health's license to distribute controlled substances.
Cardinal's CEO called the DEA move a "drastic overreaction." After the company stated that it would cease supplying oxycodone to four problem pharmacies, a judge halted the suspension pending a hearing next week.
CVS officials stated that nearly 80 percent of the oxycodone prescriptions filled at its two stores were written by a small number of physicians. The company said that it will no longer fill those doctors' orders for Schedule II narcotics.
Source: USA TODAY, "DEA: Oxycodone orders by pharmacies 20 times average" Donna Leinwand Leger, Feb. 7, 2012
